I took to a trip margate two weeks ago and visited the Shell Grotto.
Its a beautiful place.
I noticed pencil graffiti from the Victorian era including love notes and visitors initials.

Ghostly echoes traveled round corners from other day trippers.

'The Shell Grotto is an ornate subterranean passageway in Margate, Kent.Almost all the surface area of the walls and roof are covered in mosaics created entirely of seashells,totaling about 2,000 square feet of mosaic,or 4.6 million shells.It was discovered in 1835 but its age remains unknown.'

I thought of this photograph last night & thought about the crossovers with the Preston posting.
I like the civilized nature of the image, it gives what some people may perceive as a whimsical notion a real dignity.
A drawing-room or Radio 3 validation rather than a scientific one perhaps.

Its taken from the book, The Gardeners Folklore by Margaret Baker, published 1978.
Evidence for the book was collected from all over the world, she posted adverts in local papers inviting readers to send in their memories old garden folklore.

This delightfully written book shows just what people have believed and still believe will help their plants grow.The observance of lunar and astrological conditions when planting,ways of encouraging fruit-bearing and discouraging pests,beliefs about the effects of climate and calendar, spells, the influence for good and bad of certain plants, the links between owners and trees . . gleaned from the people who grew up with them, they have much to say about our rural origins as well as having, here and there, implications for the future.